Nitya Puja

(I) What is Nitya-Puja ?

Nitya means daily. Puja in Sanskrit means to adore, to worship. Puja is to worship God. Therefore Puja performed every day is known as Nitya-Puja. For example, if someone saved us from drowning, then we would still remember him on special occasions, such as his birthday, or Diwali. That is a subtle act of Puja.Nitya-Puja evokes feelings of live and adoration. On occasions it may feel mechanical or robotic.

(II) Why is Nitya-Puja performed in the morning?

The scriptures declare that the early hours of the morning are considered especially auspicious. Therefore any sacred activity performed in the morning will bear greater fruit. The remembrance of bad or evil people, such as Ravana, in the morning will influence an evil or bad desires or behaviour. But on the other hand, meditating on God and the Saints will awaken our spiritual attributes Dharma, Gnan, Vairagya, and Bhakti.

So there is no better auspicious time for puja than early morning. After a night’s rest, the mind is more peaceful than at any other time of the day. With a peaceful mind, thoughts of the Divine make it more pure. This will let you transform the day’s chores into bhakti, into a festival, to keep it free of misfortunes, the morning puja is a must and boon.

A unique fringe benefit of morning puja is that the mind is calmed by the divine inspiration of God and His Sadhu and is better able to ford through the day’s problems at work and home.

(III) Why personal Puja is necessary?

Some people reveal naively that one of their family members performs a puja and lights a divo in the Ghar mandir, so the rest have no need to do puja themselves!

This is not true.

When we feel hungry, if someone else eats on our behalf, will that satisfy us? When we are thirsty, if someone else drinks the water, will it quench our thirst? If we feel sleepy, and if somebody else sleeps for us, will we be rested? No, only we can do those things for ourselves. No one can do them for us.

(IV) Murtis is the Puja. What should the Murtis be like?

There is only one creator, sustainer and protector of the infinite universes and He is Paramatma - Lord Swaminarayan. Therefore in the Nitya-Puja, the murtis to be worshipped are of only Lord Swaminarayan and no one else (not even his Sadhu, or even his bhakta).

(V) What is the sequence of the Nitya-Puja routine?

Devotees of Shree Swaminarayan Sampraday are advised to follow the Nitya-Puja vidhi described below. First understand the key items related to Nitya-Puja vidhi activities

1.Getting ready for Puja : The Puja must be the very first thing one does in the morning after bath. Satsangis should not drink or eat anything before their Nitya-Puja.. One wakes up in the morning before sunrise and takes bath or shower.

For puja get dressed with washed clothes. Preferably these clothes are kept separate from those worn during the day. For males, a dhotiyu and a shal are suitable. For females, Sari or traditional dresses are suitable. After puja, the clothes should be neatly folded and stored away. This inspires noble thoughts during puja. It is best not to wear a shirt and a pair of trousers, shorts or jeans during such an auspicious activity.

Have a cup of water, spoon and some sweet, dry fruit, or fruit to offer to God during puja. Satsangis often keep separate set of pots to be used only for Puja or other such activities.

2.Place and Asan for the Puja :

The idea is to do puja where you have minimum distraction. Pick such a spot, if you wish play a Kirtan, Dhun cassette in the background. Sit on a piece of cloth or mat (asan) facing North or East direction.

Now, pour a spoon of water in your right palm and drink it as follow: first time chant "Aum Narayanay Namah" before drinking, second time chant "Aum Haraye Namah", and third time chant "Aum Harikrushnay Namah".

Now take a spoon or two of water and wash your right palm before the next step.

You are ready to do Tilak Chandlo. This step is slightly different for males and females. For male, the tilak should be imprinted on the forehead using Gopi chandan paste and then in the middle of the tilak a round kum-kum (red) chandlo should be imprinted. For female, only the Kumkum chandlo in the forehead is prescribed in Sikshapatri.

3.Mansi Puja:

Here are some ideas about how to do the morning mansi puja, you can modify and add to it as per the scriptures.

During Mansi Puja, close your eyes, recognize that you are soul. Imagine that you are in the service to God. You wake him up, help him clean his teeth, take a nice bath, bring him appropriate clothes, ornaments to wear and so forth. Serve him breakfast, accept prasad from him. Do arti.

4.Puja:

After mansi puja, open your eyes. In front of your asan another asan should be laid, for the Murtis. The Shikshapatri and the tilak-chandlo should be placed neatly on one side. Lay the murties in front of you and invite Lord Swaminarayan to accept your Puja through the Murties. Then do following:

1.Offer flowers, and food/water you had prepared.

2.At least 5 malas ( going through each bead of the rosary while chanting Swaminarayan) while sitting,

6.Now offer your prayers. O Maharaj! Please protect me from the maya. Please protect me from our indriyas and antahkaran. Please protect me from all types of evil, bad company. Please accompany me at all times. Finally one touches the charan (lotus-feet) of the murtis and brings one's hands to one's eyes. This is known as charan sparsh.

7.Now politely request Maharaj to take his place in your heart.

8.Fold up the murtis laid in front of you.

9.Now, read at least 5 shlokas from Sikshapatri.

This is the end of morning Puja. Now it is time to wrap up. Put everything back as it was before. At this time you should say Jay Swaminarayan to your family members and especially to elders.

(VI)What are the benefits of Nitya-Puja?

Doing the puja everyday brings you closer to Lord Swaminarayan. Not just that but He will stay with you at all times and help you in doing good things. He will also become very happy on you.

One achieves love of God by hearing and chanting about the Supreme Lord's special qualities even while engaged in the ordinary activities of life in this world.

Why do you say that the dreamland is unreal? Because, when you are awake it is not there. Then so does not this very definition of unreality apply to the wakeful state? When in the dreamland or deep sleep the wakeful world exists no longer.

Satsang

According to Shreeji Maharaj this Satsang is the fruit of all religious and devotional practices (G.3/2) What is Satsang? For that, Satanand Swami states in Satsangi Jivan :-

Sat + Sang = Satsang

By merging the two terms, the meaning of Satsang is derived. The term Sat implies four significances:

The God,

Saints who have entirely surrendered to God

Dharma asserted by God Himself and his favourite saints, and

The Scriptures wherein these three above mentioned are prescribed.

These four things together form the complete meaning of "sat". What is "Sang" (the next term)? In Vachanamratam, Shreeji Maharaj has commented on the term "sang". The association which is made by body, action, and mind is called "sang" (G.1/78). Now if you examine with introversion, you can gauge the kind of satsang we do. We are used to emanate the scriptural discourses through an ear that we had heard from some one. Maharaj makes it clear in Vachanamratam that it is one's infinite fortune to be able to recognize satsang (G. 2/9). Because it is hard to achieve God even after the austerities of thousands of years, we should be appreciative of the opportunities. Nishkulanand Swami, therefore utters as such - how can a pretty ant happened to meet an elephant. There is a vast difference between the God and a soul. The differences between them are more than the between earth and the sky or that between an ant and an elephant. What makes the meeting between the two vastly different entities (God and soul) possible? It happens merely due to the will of God, the supreme personality. Further Nishkulanand swami writes in Chaushadpadi that "the company of God" remains remote even after one spends 100 lifetimes for the purpose. If we realize, this impossible has become possible for us. As Premanand swami states that

aeva durlabh sulabh thaya, aaj mari beni

This hardly achievable being became easy to attain in this course of lifetime O! Friends! The God in human form has come to me. Oh Devotees ponder yourself and realize that the same God has come to us. Why don’t we feel the pleasure of His company? Can we identify any of the forty-four incarnations that has graced his followers by installing his own forms? But our beloved God Lord Swaminarayan has installed His own form in Vadtal. Thinking of generations to come, he installed his own form so those worshippers can meditate upon the same form.

Secondly Lord Swaminarayan established unique foundation of satsang. With such a foundation, even now, we can find many saints who have absolutely renounced the contact of female and personal wealth. The only thing we have to do is to recognize these saints. If we identify such saints then we have fulfilled the second and very important aspect of satsang.

Third aspect, to fulfill the meaning of Satsang, is the pious conduct prescribed by god and his beloved saints. A significant part of the task is to know the right conduct. Even that has been arranged for us. To find our general or specific religious duties we can go to Shikshapatri. We do not need to dwell on other books or treatises, Sikshapatri explains our duties in simple terms. Not only that but it has been composed by Lord Swaminarayan Himself. With these three elements: The God, His beloved saints, adherence to one's pious conduct we are almost there.

The forth aspect is Holy Scriptures which are consistent and supporting the first three aspects described above.

We certainly have all of the four elements of the "sat" available to us. When we have association to these four elements in our actions, in our thoughts, in our words then we are really worthy of being called "Satsangi". Such Satsang is very dear to God and pleases Him.

When a person truly does Satsang, he or she acquires virtuous attributes, values of being Satsangi. Glorifying the importance of Satsang Gunatitanand swami says that we ought to seek such Satsang even if we have to eat the loaf from temples. For this reason, Shriji Maharaj states in Vachnamritam that He does not get as impressed seeing austerities, vows and so on, as he gets impressed by Satsang. Achintyanand varni also opined in Harililakalpataru - Just the Suryakant Mani (one type of pierce) engenders the fire being affected by the rays of the sun, similarly in the heart of human being the devotional tendencies are produced by the association of holy saints. To be closer to God, the only and eminent means is the devotion as stated by Shriji Maharaj. And this characteristic (devotion) is only be achieved by Satsang. Shriji Maharaj states that the continuous devotional connection with lord is an extrenely difficult task. And that is also the product of Satsang. We are all lucky to have the devotional connection due to the true Satsang. Devotion is a matter or such a mean that it never gets diminished by any vices if it is entirely and perfectly observed. Nishkulanand swami glorifies this element saying this way- Just as the pot made of gold does not change in value when it is deformed, the devotional practice, whenever and wherever performed, never turns to be ineffective or barren. One can pour water in to a parched and prepared pot, filled water would undoubtedly be cold. But if the pot is being made and not parched yet, one cannot hold water in to the pot or make the water cool. In the same manner, devotion represents the symbol of pot, where as the Satsang is the same of oven. When the pot of devotion, excellently parches in oven of Satsang, only then this pot will be suitable for the water to be poured in it. It is to say that the devotion of those, which has realized this mysterious meaning of Satsang and cherished also is uninterrupted and perfect.

Now that you have the oath of such this great Satsang, so recognized it and stop running elsewhere. This is the only way to please Lord Swaminarayan. You should do Satsang only for the sake of your own welfare, leaving all other mundane desires of this world. We are so lucky that our all disasters and miseries are carried by the God. For this reason, great saints were used to say that Satsang is the mine of all happiness, and most superior mean to salvation. After having this Satsang, there is nothing more to be achieved. So by doing such Satsang, we should please God.

Lessons of Life

There were once 2 brothers who lived on the 80th floor of a tall building.

On coming home one day, they realized to their dismay that the lifts were

not working and that they have to climb the stairs home. After struggling to

the 20th level, panting and tired, they decided to abandon their bags and

come back for them the next day. They left their bags there and climbed on............

By the time they have struggled to the 40th level they had gone

sufficiently mad and irritated. The younger brother started to grumble and

both of them began to quarrel. They continued to climb the flights of steps,

quarrelling all the way to the 60th floor.

They then realized that they have only 20 levels more to climb and decided

to stop quarrelling and continue climbing in peace. They silently climbed on

and reached their home at long last. Each stood calmly before the door and

waited for the other to open the door. And they realized that the key was in

their bags which were left on the 20th floor.........

This story is a reflection on our life and times. All of us climb the tall

building called life...........some till all the 80 floors and some less.

Many of us climb under the expectations of our companion.

Time to time these are our friends and parents till the 20th floor, then our

spouse and our dear ones till the next level of the building. We seldom get

to do the things that we really like and love and are under so much pressure

and stress that by the age of 20, we get tired and decide to dump this load.

Being free of the stress and pressure, we work enthusiastically and

dream ambitious wishes.

By the time we reach 40 years old, we start to lose our vision and dreams.

We began to feel unsatisfied and start to complain and criticize. We live

life as a misery as we are never satisfied.

Reaching 60, we realize that we have little left for complaining anymore,

and we begin to walk the final episode in peace and calmness. We think that

there is nothing left to disappoint us, only to realize that we could not

rest in peace because we have an unfulfilled dream..........a dream we

abandon 60 years ago. So what's your dream.....?

Know your dreams and follow it so that you will not live with regrets.

Help others and thank God.

Accept yourself...

Believe in yourself...

Like yourself...

Inside each of us are powers so strong, treasures so rich, possibilities so

endless, that to command them all to action would change the history of the